Council tax reduction in Scotland: July to September 2017

Council Tax Reduction in Scotland, July to September 2017

This publication provides statistics on the Council Tax Reduction ( CTR) scheme, which reduces the Council Tax liability of lower income households in Scotland. A CTR ‘recipient’ can be a single person or a couple, with or without children, since Council Tax is charged on a per-dwelling basis, rather than to individuals.

The statistics are based on data extracts from local authorities, and cover the time period July to September 2017.

Key Points

• There were 489,560 Council Tax Reduction recipients in Scotland in September 2017.
• The total weekly income foregone by local authorities on Council Tax Reduction in September 2017 was £6.5 million.
• The total number of Council Tax Reduction recipients in Scotland was 11.4 per cent (62,820 recipients) lower in September 2017 than it was at the beginning of the scheme in April 2013. In general, this fall has been gradual, punctuated by small rises each January to March. Since April 2017, increases to Council Tax and reforms to Council Tax Reduction have exerted an upward pressure on recipient numbers, although the longer-term downward trend continues.

Chart 1: CTR recipients in Scotland, April 2013 to September 2017

The number of recipients for each local authority in July to September 2017 is shown in Table 1. The total number in Scotland decreased from 491,760 in March 2017 to 489,560 in September 2017. Several reforms to Council Tax and CTR took effect in 1 April 2017:

• Local authorities were permitted to raise their level of Council Tax by up to 3 per cent, following 9 years of Council Tax ‘freeze’.
• The multipliers used to calculate Council Tax for Bands E to H properties were changed, thereby increasing Council Tax bills for properties in these bands. A new relief was introduced through the CTR scheme, protecting certain below-median income, low capital households from the increase caused by these multiplier changes.
• The CTR child premium was increased by 25 per cent.

Table 1: CTR Recipients by Local Authority, July to September 2017 ^{1, 2}

Notes:
1 Recipients are as at monthly count date. See Methodology Notes, Section 2 for more details. Available at
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Local-Government-Finance/Methodology/Ctaxreductionmethod
2 Figures are rounded to the nearest 10. Components may not sum to total due to rounding.

Figure 1 shows CTR recipients by local authority for September 2017 in a treemap, using the data from Table 1. This allows a visual comparison of the number of recipients in each local authority. The five local authorities with the highest numbers of CTR recipients accounted for almost half (46 per cent) of the total for Scotland in September 2017. Glasgow City accounted for the highest proportion of Scotland’s CTR recipients, with 18 per cent (90,250) of the total. The other four authorities with the highest proportion of CTR recipients were North Lanarkshire, accounting for 8 per cent (36,990 recipients); Edinburgh City, had 7 per cent (34,880 recipients); and Fife and South Lanarkshire, 6 per cent each (31,480 and 30,710 recipients respectively).

Figure 1: Treemap of CTR recipients by Local Authority, September 2017.

Key:
1 = Eilean Siar
2 = Orkney Islands
3 = Shetland Islands
Clacks = Clackmannanshire
East Dunb. = East Dunbartonshire
East Renf. = East Renfrewshire
West Dunb. = West Dunbartonshire

The total weekly income foregone for each local authority in July, August and September 2017 is shown in Table 2. The total for Scotland was £6.5 million in September 2017; an increase of slightly over £200,000 a week in income foregone since March 2017, reflecting the reforms listed in the first paragraph on page 2.

Table 2: CTR weekly estimate of income foregone (£000’s) by Local Authority, July to September 2017 ^{1, 2, 3}

Notes:
1 Recipients are as at monthly count date. See Methodology Notes, Section 2 for more details. Available at
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Local-Government-Finance/Methodology/Ctaxreductionmethod
2 Weekly income foregone estimates are based on ‘number of recipients multiplied by average weekly reduction’ for each local authority and benefit type for the given month.
3 Figures are rounded to the nearest £100. Components may not sum to total due to rounding.